I Went Undercover in the TikTok Refugee Group: Why American Users Choose Rednote

【This article is translated by AI, and the original text was published on the Chinese media platform “Guokr”】

Opening Rednote early on Monday morning, I found the big data completely disrupted.

My homepage was suddenly flooded with a large number of Americans whom I have never followed and who have nothing to do with my interests. They posted about their cats, dogs, squirrels, and even donkeys, speaking broken Chinese and aggressively occupying my Rednote homepage.

These foreigners called themselves “TikTok Refugees.”

Yesterday, they posted “one last video” on TikTok and X, tearfully bidding farewell to their internet friends, saying “hello, goodbye, thank you” in Chinese, protesting the U.S. ban on TikTok. Today, they are regrouping on Rednote, bringing their families, cats, and dogs to explore the everyday lives of Chinese netizens across the ocean.

Their rapid influx pushed Rednote into the top three free app downloads in the U.S. Interesting enough, the top download, “Lemon8,” is a TikTok-developed clone of Rednote, with similar interface and features.

ChatGPT has dropped to fourth place｜AppStore

All this stemmed from a March ruling last year.

At that time, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” with a 352-65 vote. This proposal mandated that if ByteDance did not divest or sell TikTok within 165 days, the app would be removed from U.S. stores. This means TikTok’s 170 million active users in the U.S. could eventually lose access to updates, leaving the app dormant.

January 19 this year was the deadline set by the U.S. Supreme Court. On this date, a decision will be made on whether TikTok must cease operations in the U.S. As per audio broadcasts on the Supreme Court website, on January 10, a two-hour discussion took place concerning TikTok’s future in the U.S. The result indicated that the U.S. federal appeals court would uphold the original ruling, demanding ByteDance divests from the U.S. by January 19, 2025, or face a ban.

As U.S. users anxiously awaited TikTok’s fate, they prepared for a future without it by flocking to Rednote, creating new accounts, and calling themselves “TikTok Refugees.” This has generated over 40 million views and nearly 100,000 posts on Rednote. Recently, Google searches for Rednote have surged phenomenally.

Image source: Google Trends

This situation may not last long, but for now, Rednote continues to welcome cyber refugees from TikTok.

I joined a Rednote TikTok Refugee group to see what they discuss and why they’ve shifted to Rednote.

TT refugees explaining their shift to Rednote on X

TT refugees reporting on Rednote

Paying “cat tax,” becoming digital Li Hua

Opening the Rednote homepage, many Americans are paying the “cat tax” since only by doing so can they be accepted by the community. Those without cats resort to paying the “dog tax” or “rabbit tax,” sharing pet photos often achieves explosive traffic—pet pictures are like roaches; if there’s one in the comment section, hundreds more will appear.

Other Americans are eagerly absorbing Chinese internet memes, fully localizing themselves. They expand their network on Rednote, search for mutual friends, call for algorithmic suggestions of old mutual followers, and even form groups representing cities and regions to find compatriots. American bloggers on Rednote expressed that the platform is so lively that they gained more followers in a day than they did in a year on TikTok.

Chinese netizens have not let this slide. Some started leveraging the kind yet bewildered Americans to write English multiple-choice questions, correct English essays, or complete cloze tests. A netizen commented, after writing essays for Li Hua for ten years, it’s finally time for Li Hua’s American friends to write English assignments for Li Hua. Some American users questioned cloze test materials, “Some sentences are formal, some casual, and some questions even have more than one correct answer!”

Meanwhile, early-arrived TT refugees guide “newcomers” through video tutorials in English, demonstrating subtitle activation and translation software usage.

The refugee group is clear about rules: “a safe haven for the TikTok ban,” with stipulations that unfriendly remarks will lead to removal.

Nina from Texas posted her book and toy collection on Rednote, stating, “Rednote is similar to TikTok. The community vibe is great, many friends have shifted over.” Thalassi from Washington said, “No time to be sad, I’ve instantly fallen for Rednote. Though TikTok was a good app, rest in peace TikTok.” For TikTok-focused influencers, this online migration is intense and painful.

Each video is a labor of love. Some older videos have been deleted; the thought of losing them forever induces anxiety.

Art influencer Mikaela, with 21,000 TikTok followers, is uploading old videos to Rednote but gains few followers. “I miss my followers immensely,” she said. “But I’ll use TikTok until I can’t.” Home and pet influencer TheLittleBB with 19,000 followers deleted TikTok stating, “I will rebuild everything on Rednote.”

Why Rednote?

The question arises: why did Rednote take over as TikTok is banned?

One reason is that many American netizens have lost trust in domestic tech giants.

Thalassi expressed, “I detest Musk. He’s a misogynistic narcissist, and without TikTok, I won’t use X.” Mikaela stated her dislike for Meta brands, saying she switched from Instagram and Facebook to TikTok, and sees no reason to go back.

Everyone uses Rednote, Zuckerberg would be in tears｜Rednote

Another reason is the policy risk concerns surrounding ByteDance, making its other apps unreliable. Thalassi noted that Lemon8, despite being decent, is also a ByteDance app, under U.S. government scrutiny. “There’s no reason to believe Lemon8 will thrive if TikTok gets banned, I don’t wish to migrate again,” said Thalassi.

Most importantly, Rednote is well-established in beauty and lifestyle, with a significant overseas user base. As one of the few Chinese social apps available in U.S. stores, options are limited for American netizens. Currently, Rednote appears unprepared for “traffic reception,” lacking separated accounts for China and the U.S. Most troubling for Americans is the lack of built-in translation, making them switch between translation apps and Rednote—inefficient for real-time online interaction.

“I’m using Google Translate,” an American netizen asked me, “Should I translate into Simplified or Traditional Chinese? What’s the difference?” and “What do these comments mean, can you help?” After resolving many American queries, I’d also like to ask: when will Rednote launch built-in translation?

Before bed, group discussions shifted to “it’s the Year of the Dragon, what exactly is a dragon in China?” A Chinese user claimed, dragons indeed exist in China and all Zodiac animals are commonplace. An American noted, “Dragon and 龙 are not the same, Chinese dragons are ‘Loong.’”

Though TikTok’s fate will be decided in a week, discussions continue fervently on Rednote before any changes are made. Regardless of “paying the cat tax” or “being Li Hua,” we see both Chinese and Americans yearning for genuine exchange amidst slowing economic exchange and growing political division. This time, Rednote bears the mission for “massive traffic” and significant pressure.

Americans should be sleeping by now, but Rednote is staying awake, making me feel a touch of emotion.